$70 billion budget will spend a little more than this year

TALLAHASSEE – A final $70 billion budget deal landed on the desks of Florida lawmakers at 4:22 p.m. Tuesday – starting the 72-hour "cooling off" period before a final vote and clearing the way for the Legislature to finish its work on time Friday.

And despite fears that lawmakers could have to cut $1.9 billion in spending, the 2012-13 spending plan comes in $800 million higher than last year's $69.2 billion budget, with higher health-care, classroom, and criminal justice spending.

House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, called the package a "herculean effort with a lot of pressure at the end."

Here are some highlights:

PRE-K-12 EDUCATION FUNDING

Gov. Rick Scott's top priority this session was to bump up education spending by $1 billion. He got close.

Total state funding for public schools increases by $843.9 million, and the average per-student spending climbs from $6,224 to $6,375, a $150 increase. That comes a year after lawmakers cut $1.35 billion, or $585 per-student.

Broward Public Schools would see a $63 million funding boost, or 3.9 percent. Palm Beach County schools would get a $37.6 million increase, or 3.3 percent.

Orange County schools would get a $53 million increase, or 4.8 percent.

Volusia County schools would get a $10.6 million increase, or 2.9 percent.

Although lawmakers budgeted nothing for traditional public-school construction projects, they allocated $55 million for building charter schools – a new first for the public-education capital-spending program.

HIGHER EDUCATION FUNDING

Florida's university system would get a 12th university with the creation of Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland. But one-time cuts of $300 million will force schools to spend down reserves this year.

Universities prefer this route because it avoids permanent cuts to their base funding, which is what the House had proposed. The cuts were allocated based on a three-tiered formula that takes into account how much money each school was sitting on, its annual funding and how much it will likely increase tuition.

The state budget for the agency that runs the Medicaid health-care program for nearly 3 million poor, elderly and seriously ill Floridians held flat at $22.3 billion – although payments to hospitals and nursing homes that treat Medicaid patients would get cut.

Hospitals and nursing homes would see a combined $350 million funding hit – a cut of 1.35 percent for nursing homes and 5.6 percent for hospitals. The hospital cut would grow to $400 million next year.

Substance abuse and mental health treatment also get a 1.35 percent cut, or about $15 million – less than one-third of what the Senate had proposed.

ENVIRONMENT

Environmental programs staged something of a comeback after a multi-year budget freeze.

Florida's conservation land-buying program, Florida Forever, would get $8.7 million after two years with no funding. The program once drew down $300 million a year to buy lands endangered by encroaching development. Last year, lawmakers sought to re-start the program with proceeds from selling unneeded state lands, but Scott vetoed that. This year, he has signaled his support for the program.

Last year's budget funded 122,235 state employee positions, while this year state employment rolls will shrink to 117,881 positions.

The much-maligned Department of Corrections sees its budget cut from $2.2 billion to $2 billion – and a loss of 2,200 employees -- as lawmakers and the governor have forced prison and work-camp closings. The departments of Law Enforcement and Juvenile Justice also see small cuts to their budgets.

While the House didn't go along, the Senate is opting to start requiring its members to pay more for their health-insurance policies. For decades, lawmakers, their staffs and a select cadre of state employees have received heavily subsidized health-insurance from taxpayers.

This year, the Senate pushed to end the perk, but the House didn't want to budge. So, the Senate over the weekend offered to make the cut for just itself.